A year after a wildfire killed 102 people, destroyed Lahaina and left thousands without a home, the public has yet to learn what started the fire and where it began.
The Maui Department of Fire and Public Safety does not have a timetable for releasing its formal report on the origin and cause for Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires in Upcountry Maui and Lahaina, but said when the final report is ready a news conference will be called and the findings will be made public.
In more than 600 civil actions that are part of a proposed $4 billion dollar deal to settle all legal claims, plaintiffs have almost always blamed the fire on live power lines from Hawaiian Electric Co. that were downed by strong winds from a passing storm, the flames being fueled by dry vegetation on land owned by the state, Maui County, Kamehameha Schools and West Maui Land Co. Additionally, Spectrum Oceanic LLC and Hawaiian Telcom, which share infrastructure with Hawaiian Electric, are defendants in many cases.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has briefed the Maui Fire Department on its findings, but a finalized report has not yet been shared with the county in either electronic form or hard copy.
Maui firefighters met with ATF the last week of June to review details of the ATF report on cause and origin, which is more than 400 pages long.
The methodical probe includes evidence gathered from hundreds of interviews and data pulled from images, radio traffic, private and public video feeds, and other sources.
The reams of data and physical evidence forced investigators to move carefully with great attention to detail.
The ATF’s report will be attached as an addendum to the final origin and cause report that Maui County will release.
“ATF is assisting with this more complex, significant fire analysis. Once we receive the finalized ATF report, we look forward to incorporating it into our cause and origin report and releasing it publicly,” County of Maui Fire and Public Safety Chief Bradford Ventura told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a statement.
“We understand the importance and urgency of getting this information to the public. Because of the gravity of these reports, federal and county officials are working diligently to ensure investigations are thorough, accurate and impartial, which can be time consuming.”
Unlike California, Hawai‘i has no state statutes creating criminal penalties for large wildfires that allow for prosecutions like the one Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey conducted following the 2018 Camp fire. That prosecution ended with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. pleading guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter.
In April, Ventura released his department’s after-action report, which he commissioned from the Western Fire Chiefs Association to evaluate how firefighters handled the deadliest U.S. wildfire in at least a century.
Maui firefighters were pushed “to an unprecedented level of strain,” according to the after-action report.
Its 111 recommendations were broken into categories of preparation, mitigation and response. They included a call for coordinated evacuation plans, contingency plans, and firefighters and police operating out of the same command center.
It emphasized the long-standing need for more firefighters, fire stations, equipment and better technology and the need to set up official agreements to share emergency resources and personnel among fire departments statewide.
State investigation
The state Department of the Attorney General hired the Fire Safety Research Institute shortly after the wildfires on Aug. 8, 2023, to conduct an investigation of government agency actions up to and during the first 24 to 72 hours of the Lahaina fire and its aftermath.
FSRI’s contract is currently capped at $4 million, a $2.5 million increase from the initial $1.5 million. The increase was approved March 19.
The state initially announced the probe would take 12 months, but difficulty coordinating interviews, completing document transfers and other logistical issues between the state, county and the many agencies involved in the fire response has delayed efforts.
One particular point of contention is the county’s belief that a previous West Maui wildfire five years before the 2023 blazes and how government handled it is outside the scope of FSRI’s contract to investigate.
In August 2018 a wildfire driven by 70 mph gusts from Hurricane Lane swept across the Lahaina hillsides, burning 2,000 acres, destroying 30 vehicles and 21 structures, most of them homes.
County attorneys have tried to block efforts by the state to ask officials about the 2018 fires. County officials have refused to respond to Honolulu-Star-Advertiser questions about recommendations made in the aftermath of the 2018 West Maui fires.
An after-action report about the 2018 fires was only made public following a public records request related to the Aug. 8, 2023 fires.
The ongoing demands of complex civil litigation attached to more than 600 separate civil lawsuits has also helped slow the information flow.
“The Department of the Attorney General’s Phase Two analysis is on track for release to the public by the end of the summer as planned. That report is an independent analysis of the events surrounding the fire and will assess the performance of state and county agencies in preparing for and responding to the Maui fires,” said Toni Schwartz, public information officer for the state Department of the Attorney General.
“We don’t have any further updates to provide. When a specific date is available, we will make it public.”
FSRI is a research institute dedicated to “addressing the world’s unresolved fire safety risks” and emerging dangers, according to the state.
The second phase will be about six months of data analysis looking at how various fire protection systems functioned on Aug. 8, 2023.
Investigators will create a Incident Analysis Report that includes review of policies and actions of state and county agencies in preparing for and responding to the incident.
The final phase will result in a forward-looking report to answer the question, “how do we prevent this from happening again?,” the AG’s Office said.
MEMA report
The county is trying to find a contractor to review the actions of the Maui Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), the agency tasked with managing and coordinating emergency response.
MEMA came under heavy scrutiny in the aftermath of the devastating wildfires, with its former administrator Herman Andaya resigning Aug. 17 under criticism and international media attention after saying he did not regret the decision to not activate warning sirens during the catastrophe.
The county awarded a contract to a vendor after initial issues with the vendor’s state compliance. But subsequently, the vendor revised its timeline to complete the work from 90 days to 16 weeks, prompting county officials to look for another group to do the MEMA review.
“The County is continuing the process to secure the next best, qualified vendor, and it is close to notifying a potential vendor of its selection,” read a statement to the Star-Advertiser from county officials.
